Bitcoin and altcoins staged a recovery in early Asia trade on Monday, after last week’s global sell-off in risk assets on concerns over the new Omicron Covid-19 variant.
Bitcoin ( BTC ) rose more than 6% over the past 24 hours to hover above the $57,500 mark.The bellwether cryptocurrency took its seven-day gains into the positive territory, up 0.1% in early Asia trade on Monday.
Number two cryptocurrency ether ( ETH ) jumped 7.8% to $4,337 on Monday.Ether has gained nearly 4% in the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap.
Investors fearful
The Crypto Fear & Greed index stood at 33 points indicating a “fear” sentiment among investors.A reading of zero on the meter means “Extreme Fear” while 100 means “Extreme Greed.”
On Saturday, the Crypto Fear & Greed index fell to a reading of 21 points, as Bitcoin prices fell to a low of $53,642.
Global stock markets and cryptocurrencies fell on Friday after the World Health Organization flagged-sars-cov-2-variant-of-concern) the risks of the latest Covid-19 variant named “Omicron”, which was first detected in South Africa.
Altcoins post gains in early Asia trade
“In recent weeks we’ve seen that, in times of real uncertainty, bitcoin has not done well as an inflation hedge or a safe haven asset.
There’s no doubt it’s a fascinating tradable instrument and a highly speculative one, but it’s quite clear now that it’s a risk asset and nothing more.Not at the moment anyway.Who knows what the future holds,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at brokerage firm Oanda.
“If this new variant triggers major risk aversion in the markets, it (Bitcoin) could come under serious pressure.Unless of course, the inflation narrative catches again.
No sign of it yet but, as ever with crypto, it has an incredible ability to find the bullish case in anything.Maybe this will be next,” Erlam added.
In early Asia trade on Monday, Binance Coin ( BNB ) rose 5% to $609.25.
Solana ( SOL ) added 7% to $201.44.Cardano ( ADA ) climbed over 6% to $1.59.Dogecoin ( DOGE ) and Shiba Inu ( SHIB ) gained 2.6% and 3.6%, respectively.
Read more: The Monday after Black Friday: What to expect?
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you.However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position.But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount.In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities.
Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer.You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely..
